If you purchased a new computer iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 ProYou will probably love it. If you’re ordered a Pixel 7 Pro, you’ll love that too. You don’t need to read a bunch of reviews to know that Apple’s current iPhone lineup is its strongest ever or that Google’s newest handset brings smart, meaningful changes and a camera system unmatched on any other smartphone.
Of course, I could’ve written the same thing last year. And the year before. More than any other device, smartphones are forever a work in progress that somehow always feel like they’re not quite finished: The iPhone 12 Pro was missing ProMotion, the 13 didn’t have an always-on display, the Pixel 6 Pro was missing Face Unlock.
Your new Pixel 7 or iPhone 14 is still not perfect. And it will always be.
Same but different
The Pixel 7 Pro looks a lot like last year’s model, with a camera bar on the back and small hole-punch for the selfie camera. It’s a good phone design, but it feels like a compromise rather than the culmination of a decade.
The iPhone 14 is no exception. Apple has essentially used the same design for three years, and while it’s recognizable, it’s also starting to feel a little stale. But it’s hard to pinpoint how it could change without a radical breakthrough. Like the Pixel 7, the camera needs a bump, the screen needs a camera cutout, and the bezels can’t be reduced much more.
No matter what your manufacturer claims, any phone you choose will feel incomplete. We dream of cameras that flush against our backs, invisible bezels, and thin sheets of glass that feel almost like paper. Maybe we’ll get there in 2030 or 2041, but for now, smartphones are in an endless cycle of catchup and one-upmanship that seems like it will never end.
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Do not wait for next year
Apple is always a couple of years ahead when it comes to iPhone development, so while we’re buying the iPhone 14, engineers are working on the iPhone 16. That’s part of the reason why Apple always seems to hold back features. With each iPhone generation, you can point to a major feature that should be there but isn’t.
Besides, it’s not like Android phones aren’t catching up too. One of the Pixel 7’s premier camera features is Cinematic Blur, which is basically a carbon copy of the iPhone 13’s Cinematic Mode. Macro Focus was also introduced on the iPhone 13 Pro last summer.
iPhone fans and Pixel fans will argue that the features are different, but that’s not really the point. Phones are playing a simultaneous game of catch-up and one-up that gets repeated each year, and there’s always going to be something that one has and the other doesn’t. For example, the iPhone 14 Pro has a telephoto lens, but it’s not as good as the one on the Pixel 7 Pro or the Galaxy S22. That’s probably coming with the iPhone 15.
One of the Pixel 7’s marquee camera features is basically Cinematic Mode.
After years of 12MP images, the iPhone has just been upgraded to a 48MP lens. For years, high-megapixel cameras with always-on displays and high-quality images have been a staple of high-end Android phones. Apple could have given these to us anytime in the past few updates. But that’s not how the game works. Apple and Google will never give us more than what is necessary to make us happy enough with the new model but not satisfied enough to warrant a purchase.
Perhaps the Pixel 8 will get Dynamic Island. Or the iPhone 16 gets Google’s Magic Eraser and Photo Unblur. Perhaps the camera bar will be added to the iPhone or the Pixel will get a more flat design.
While you’re exploring your new iPhone 14 Plus model, the features for the iPhone 16 are in development and will not change much between now-2024. And by the time they arrive, there will be something else the iPhone doesn’t have.
